Maternity home for Eastern workers

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Memorial Cemetery Hochstraße : Crosses for the murdered Polish babies

The maternity hospital for Eastern workers at Broitzemer Strasse 200 in Braunschweig existed from May 10, 1943 to April 12, 1945, the day the city of Braunschweig was handed over to the 30th US Infantry Division of the 9th US Army . The sole purpose of this “maternity hospital” was to restore the labor force of the Eastern European forced laborers as quickly as possible after giving birth and to return them to the work flow of the factories. The women had to leave the camp at the latest eight days after the birth to go back to work and in most cases had to leave their children behind in the maternity hospital. About 36% of the newborns died after a short time due to neglect by the (medical) camp staff and the very poor hygienic conditions there.

history

Grave slab with the names of the murdered Polish babies in the Hochstrasse cemetery

On April 16, 1943, a meeting took place in the Chamber of Commerce, which dealt with the establishment of a “maternity home for Eastern workers”. The AOK , which had already set up a “Russian hospital”, took over responsibility for the maternity hospital.

The “home” was set up in an existing barracks on the premises of the Braunschweig share brickworks , almost directly opposite the first youth hostel in the city of Braunschweig , which was inaugurated in 1929, and opened on May 10, 1943. The women stayed there for eight days after giving birth and were then separated from their children who stayed there. Small children who had given birth in other places in Braunschweig were also admitted to the home. The house was occupied by around 25–30 pregnant women or women who had just given birth. It had three rooms, one for women who have recently given birth , the second for the newborns and the third for the slightly older children. Sick and healthy children stayed together. The first children were born in mid-May and the first died a few weeks later.

At the turn of the year 1943/1944, an infectious bowel disease led to a check-up visit by a German doctor, without the circumstances changing or death. The health department once determined a "hospital fever epidemic". In the spring, the head of the Braunschweig Children's Hospital discovered a nutritional disorder. The appearance of the children was determined by vomiting, diarrhea and skin diseases. Despite the mass deaths, discharged children have occasionally been readmitted. So in June 1944; at the time there were “catastrophic conditions” there. Toilets and washrooms were “filthy and covered with completely dirty blankets and towels. Maggots crawled around and three corpses of children were in the bathroom. "

Entrance to the Hochstrasse memorial

The women were largely aware of the short survival time and the conditions. They refused to surrender the children or tried to hide them in the camp where they were detained. Some broke into the home to get their children back. About 360 babies died. The exact numbers of the dead are inconsistent. On June 27, 1944, the “home” was taken over by the “Community Camp of Braunschweig Industry”.

Braunschweig, one of the armaments centers of the Reich, was systematically bombed from February 1944. On March 15, 1944, the brick building in the immediate vicinity of the “maternity hospital” was destroyed. The delivery barrack was not hit.

If infants died - often after three to four weeks - they were first “collected”. The corpses of Russian children were cremated immediately, the Polish children were buried in 10 kg margarine boxes in the Hochstrasse cemetery, where there are now 149 of them.

The cemetery has been a memorial since 2001.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudolf Prescher: The red rooster over Braunschweig. Air protection measures and aerial warfare events in the city of Braunschweig from 1927 to 1945. p. 107.
  2. ↑ Hans-Ulrich Ludewig, Gudrun Fiedler: Forced Labor and War Economy in the State of Braunschweig 1939–1945. P. 215.
  3. ↑ Bernhild Vögel, Maternity Home ..., (see literature), p. 15.
  4. ↑ Raimund Reiter: Killing sites for foreign children in the Second World War - On the tension between the wartime economic work and National Socialist racial policy in Lower Saxony. Hahnsche Buchhandlung, Hannover 1993. ISBN 3-7752-5875-2 , pp. 131ff.
  5. ^ Raimund Reiter: Killing sites for foreign children in World War II ..., Hanover 1993. P. 131.
  6. ↑ Bernhild Vögel, Maternity Home ..., (see literature), p. 90.
  7. ↑ Bernhild Vögel, Maternity Home ..., (see literature), p. 94.
  8. ↑ Bernhild Vögel: ... and in Braunschweig? Materials and tips for exploring the city 1930–1945 , 2nd updated edition, p. 93.
  9. ↑ City of Braunschweig: Concept for the planning, construction and design of urban memorials to the National Socialist tyranny. Braunschweig 2001.

Coordinates: 52 ° 15 ′ 15.9 ″  N , 10 ° 29 ′ 48.7 ″  E